Post retrieval-Well, since Friday (2/5/10) was the retrieval, David, the embryologist, said he would stay in touch with us over the weekend with the progress of my eggs and our embryos. I was so excited and nervous that I could hardly fall asleep, and when I finally did, my mind would wake me up every so often thinking of every possible scenario. Finally (after what seemed like forever), I got a call from David the next morning at 9am-just like he promised!
We were under the impression that we were going to have 12 eggs to work with, but apparently when he measured them there were only 8 that were “genetically mature” (meaning they were large enough to make an embryo). Those 8 were then combined with Paul’s sperm using a 
process called ICSI (ICSI is a procedure that uses a needle the size of one sperm to inject one sperm into one egg. Bare with me for the next bit of details if you are not planning on using IVF in the future…..ICSI is usually a process reserved especially for men with fertility problems-which Paul did not have. However, since we thought we could save some money by skipping out on an extra FDA screening on Paul we decided to freeze Paul’s specimen. We were not informed that simply freezing a specimen would pretty much guarantee the use of the procedure. So, instead of paying another $200 or so for a second blood test, we paid $350 to freeze his semen, $200 for blood work, and $1650 for ICSI. I guess this is where the phrase “hind site is 20/20” can be inserted.) As I talked with David I got more and more nervous because the 8 eggs that I thought we had was now decreased to only 3 fertilized eggs and 2 “possibly fertilized” eggs. He said that he would know by Sunday (2/7/10) whether or not the other two were going to show any more of the signs of true fertilization. This conversation was so crazy for me. In one way I was excited because we had three fertilized eggs to work with, but on the other hand I couldn’t help but think why did the other ones not work? 12 to 3 is a big difference….
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process called ICSI (ICSI is a procedure that uses a needle the size of one sperm to inject one sperm into one egg. Bare with me for the next bit of details if you are not planning on using IVF in the future…..ICSI is usually a process reserved especially for men with fertility problems-which Paul did not have. However, since we thought we could save some money by skipping out on an extra FDA screening on Paul we decided to freeze Paul’s specimen. We were not informed that simply freezing a specimen would pretty much guarantee the use of the procedure. So, instead of paying another $200 or so for a second blood test, we paid $350 to freeze his semen, $200 for blood work, and $1650 for ICSI. I guess this is where the phrase “hind site is 20/20” can be inserted.) As I talked with David I got more and more nervous because the 8 eggs that I thought we had was now decreased to only 3 fertilized eggs and 2 “possibly fertilized” eggs. He said that he would know by Sunday (2/7/10) whether or not the other two were going to show any more of the signs of true fertilization. This conversation was so crazy for me. In one way I was excited because we had three fertilized eggs to work with, but on the other hand I couldn’t help but think why did the other ones not work? 12 to 3 is a big difference….
When David called on Sunday I learned that the other two did not make it. They were no longer showing signs of progression. This hit me like a ton of bricks, but I was encouraged by everyone around me that at least we had three more to work with! On this same Sunday morning call, he also informed me that instead of a Wednesday transfer, we were going to have the transfer on MONDAY (2/8/10)!!! WHAT?! Monday? Ok, so that was pretty exciting, but once again I got knocked backwards…the three fertilized eggs that I thought were certain were not so certain any more. Only one of the three was showing signs of division. Revert back to your high school biology class for a minute. The fertilized egg is only that. It must start cleaving or dividing to show that it is a thriving organism. 1 of the 3 was already a 2 celled organism on Sunday, so if the other 2 were going to divide they would have to do it before Monday morning. He gave me a glimmer of hope that they might still come around, but come Monday morning at around 11am
(one hour before we were to arrive at the clinic for the transfer) he called to tell me that the other two did not make it. I lost it. I cried and cried…Now, not only do we not have any embryos to freeze for the future or for another round of IVF if this round doesn’t work, but now we only have one chance at a pregnancy. We were planning on transferring 2 embryos into Kari’s uterus because we weighed out all the pros and cons of 1 vs.2 embryos implanted and decided that 2 embryos matched all of our desires/concerns better. If you were able to understand and keep up with everything in this post, now do you see why this process could make someone crazy?? Recap:
2/5/10- Andrea’s Retrieval: 12 eggs retrieved
2/6/10- Only 8 genetically mature, only 3 fertilized, 2 "possibly fertilized"
2/7/10- "Possibly fertilized" did not make it, only 1 fertilized egg has divided, waiting on other 2
2/8/10- Kari’s Transfer: Only left with one 7-celled embryo to transfer
This embryo was affectionately referred to as “The Little Embryo that could!”
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